iPhone 3G no service help appreciated

[esdubleu]

Hello everyone, thanks for taking your time to read this. I recently bought an iphone 3g, that was originally unlocked on 3.1.3, however the owner fell for apples trap and upgraded to 4.1.

The phone has a baseband of 05.14.02 and it asks me to activiate it with a simcard. The owner told me it was originally locked to optus, wouldnt i just need a optus sim card to activate the phone...? why isnt it working, do i need the actual sim card that came with the phone? or did the owner lie to (possibly bought online from America with AT&T locked. Really confused, help appreciated.

thankyou

--------------------------------[EDIT]--------------------------------------------
The phone is infact locked with Optus, i have inserted an optus simcard and activated the phone (First sim card must of been faulty) BUT i still get no service... Does this mean my iphone's antenna is screwed? if the seller isnt lying, this only happened after upgrading to 4.1... any ideas?

 

[Applejuiced]

If its not activating with the optus sim its not locked to optus then.
Only the seller really knows what carrier its locked to but maybe he dont either.
You can use redsnow to JB and hactivate it so at least you can use it as an ipod touch.
There should be a new unlock in the next few months so stay tuned and be very carefull with upgrades when it comes to unlockable baseband versions.
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=12115
Try the tutorial above and after you JB install fuzzyband from cydia so you can check to see if you're on bootloade 5.08 so you can downgrade your baseband and unlock again.
Good luck.

 

[esdubleu]

If its not activating with the optus sim its not locked to optus then.
Only the seller really knows what carrier its locked to but maybe he dont either.
You can use redsnow to JB and hactivate it so at least you can use it as an ipod touch.
There should be a new unlock in the next few months so stay tuned and be very carefull with upgrades when it comes to unlockable baseband versions.
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=12115
Try the tutorial above and after you JB install fuzzyband from cydia so you can check to see if you're on bootloade 5.08 so you can downgrade your baseband and unlock again.
Good luck.

Thanks for you reply, ive actually hactivated it last night and tried fuzzyband but my bootload was too new. I guess i have to wait for the unlock and just hope the antenna isnt broken

 

[PaHtSaN]

Thanks for you reply, ive actually hactivated it last night and tried fuzzyband but my bootload was too new. I guess i have to wait for the unlock and just hope the antenna isnt broken

That sucks, hopefully it comes out soon. If you want to find out weather he lied, go into settings-general-about and look at the model number. If it ends in LL that means its American at&t, if it ends in X its Australian Optus. Heres a link of models by country, its probably a little bit outdated, but the point is you can tell which country/carrier its from by the last letters on the model #

http://pinoyiphoneforum.com/index.php?topic=1531.0

 

[esdubleu]

That sucks, hopefully it comes out soon. If you want to find out weather he lied, go into settings-general-about and look at the model number. If it ends in LL that means its American at&t, if it ends in X its Australian Optus. Heres a link of models by country, its probably a little bit outdated, but the point is you can tell which country/carrier its from by the last letters on the model #

http://pinoyiphoneforum.com/index.php?topic=1531.0

Thankyou so much for your info, i tried my friends optus sim card and activated the phone. This means i no longer need an unlock while the cards inside, but i still get no service... the antenna is broken ive been scammed $240, i guess i have to look at the bright side and take this as a lesson learnt to not be persuaded by people so easily xD

 

[Applejuiced]

That sucks dude.

 

[PaHtSaN]

Thankyou so much for your info, i tried my friends optus sim card and activated the phone. This means i no longer need an unlock while the cards inside, but i still get no service... the antenna is broken ive been scammed $240, i guess i have to look at the bright side and take this as a lesson learnt to not be persuaded by people so easily xD

Yep, I buy iphones every now and then, unlock/jailbreak them, and send them overseas. When someone tells you the phone is in "good condition" that means that theres something wrong with it. You can't trust people. I bought one once that didn't even detect wifi and was supposed to be in good condition.

What I did was downloaded MiWi. I have NEVER used it to tether, the sole purpose was to test wifi on phones that I buy from other people. That said, if you want to fix the phone (keep in mind its a pain in the ass) you can always buy a working antenna and replace it. Im warning you though, there are so many tiny details inside that iphone that its easy to break something. You can always sell in on ebay as is and get most of your money back. I'd say thats your best option.

 

[eastercat]

If you can recoup some of your money, go to Hong Kong and get an official unlocked iphone. No worries about whether it'll work with your SIM and you won't have to worry about whether the iOS update will break your unlock.